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Diane's German Chocolate Cake

"This is much easier than your old-fashioned scratch recipes and it tastes just as good."

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Diane's German Chocolate Cake

Why it works: Buttermilk and evaporated milk share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Diane's German Chocolate Cake

1 8-inch 3-layer cake
Prep15 min
Cook35 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1143Calories
21 gProtein
94 gFat
57 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Coconut1/2 cup shredded (40g)283
Pecans1 oz (28g / ~19 halves)196
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Cakenot in our table0
Puddingnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Buttermilk + evaporated milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Vanilla + pecanstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,691 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Vanilla + cocoa powdertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vanilla, cocoa powder, buttermilk, egg, evaporated milk, sugar):

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Pecansthe original
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vanilla, cocoa powder, buttermilk, egg, evaporated milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.